


you showed what a little bit of love can do

by katana_fleet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 00:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9523826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katana_fleet/pseuds/katana_fleet
Summary: “It’s just so sudden. I don’t know what to say,” Emma said.“Just say yes, and make me the happiest man on earth.” Was that Hook? Kneeling before his daughter? Murmuring the words with agony in his voice?“Oh, Killian. Of course it’s yes!” They stood in unison—the mostly black blurs moved upward in unison—and kissed. David heard Hook’s chuckle, somehow softened, and Emma’s giggle, happier than he’d ever heard it, the smacking, and Henry’s small shriek.“David!” Emma turned in Hook’s arms and saw him. She pushed her hand out toward him, upon which sat a silver blur. “You’ll never believe what’s happened!”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saltwaterheartstrings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltwaterheartstrings/gifts).



> title from 'something blue' by neil diamond. all credit to a&e, the abc, joss whedon, and mutant enemy. nothing is mine, etc. inspired by 'something blue' ('buffy the vampire slayer season 4 episode 9). recognizable lines are from that episode. written purely for mi hermana. because this is also her favorite episode of 'buffy'. this is set in a different sort of season 2 where graham's still alive. many thanks to literatiruinedme and becauseyouwantme-itwouldbeenough for reading over this <3

“David!” Regina said as the man entered the room. “Come on in! Have a drink!”

David looked around at the various broken bottles, cracked Tupperware containers, and dented beer cans. Then he looked at Regina, who was sitting on the floor, her nice jacket torn and a small cut across her cheek. “Are you drunk?” he asked incredulously. He found the expected source of Regina’s wobbling glee in her hand. “Did you steal Hook’s rum?”

“I’m in pain, David. I can do what I want. Except for—” Her overconfident sentence ended in a mumble.

David stared down at the hopefully-former Evil Queen and his stepmother-in-law. “What did you try to do, Regina? Henry dropped by last night and told us this morning that he’d seen flashes of light and heard some crashing noises.”

“Well, David, here’s the thing,” Regina spoke in a whisper, leaning toward David. The bottle of rum tipped and a few drops fell onto the floor next to a cracked jar. “The crashing was probably these bottles and jars, as any _idiot_ could see. The flashes were a spell.”

“Why did you break everything?” David asked, stepping away from Regina, whose eyes were darting to his mouth just a little too much. “And what was the spell for? I didn’t know your magic was working so well.”

Regina turned the rum bottle upside-down over her face. The final drop of liquid landed in her eye and she yelped. As she scrubbed at her eye, she explained. “Well, you see, I am in pain. Your wife got the man I love killed, and I recently had to destroy his body. That’s not a good thing for someone with my power. So I started a _my-will-be-done_ spell, hoping to get rid of the pain. When that didn’t work, I found my alcohol and I drank it.”

David tried not to laugh. An intoxicated Regina Mills was an amusing sight, especially with the torn jacket and the raccoon-like appearance of one eye. Then he sobered. “What was the spell supposed to do?”

“You _are_ blind, aren’t you, David? The _my-will-be-done_ spell is supposed to let my will be done as I say it. But it didn’t make me feel better at _all_. I am feeling much better now, thank you for asking.”

David wasn’t feeling better at all. The world had turned a bit darker, and it smelled like rum. “I need to go, Regina. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you, if you want.”

Regina pouted up at him as he stood. “Can you send Emma over? All of this is her fault too, and I feel like blaming more people.”

“I think she’s at the hospital, guarding Hook. If we let him go free, he’s likely to try to hurt more people, not just Belle.”

Regina scowled. At least he thought it was a scowl; David thought it could have just as easily been a full-on glare. “Belle’s doing just fine. It was only a graze! And Rumple healed it. I bet her memory’s going to come back in a few hours, with her lovely luck.” She slammed the bottle into the floor. David jumped when the glass shattered and the linoleum cracked. “And Emma should just go ahead and _marry_ the pirate, for all the time they’ve been spending together recently.”

“Emma has to guard Hook. I’m sure she’ll come over here if you ask very nicely.” David backed away from the mess of a woman on the floor. He was also sure that if Emma came to the Evil Queen’s house, it would not be a trip to console Regina. Regina would likely end up unconscious.

David’s vision blurred again. “I have to go, Regina. I’ll check on you tomorrow.” He wandered out of the house to the tune of Regina’s petulant whining. He decided to visit Emma at the hospital, maybe taunt Hook a bit, and maybe get an eye appointment. He had the strangest feeling that seeing black spots in a world of gray wasn’t good.

\--

“Stay down, Hook,” Emma said, not looking up from her book. Hook sighed and lay back down. Henry laughed.

“How’d you know he was moving, Mom?” he asked.

Emma glanced over at Henry. “His heart rate machine beeped faster,” she explained. Her son nodded.

“That’s pretty cool,” Henry said. “You don’t even have to look at Hook to guard him!”

Emma winked and Hook growled. He was slightly more than a little upset with the circumstances surrounding his hospitalization—or incarceration, depending on one’s point of view. Emma couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him for a moment. Then she shook her head and moved her attention back to her book. Hook was a villain. Not a good guy to feel sorry for.

“Why do you have to watch me suffer, Swan?” Hook asked. “What if I promise I won’t move, and you go away, and we’ll all be happy?”

Emma sighed and looked up at Hook. His blue eyes were bluer than usual with the fluorescent lights, and his hair was all rumpled. She really wished he wasn’t hot. It’d be so much easier to hate him completely if he were unattractive. “Because if I don’t guard you, you may get free of the handcuffs again. That will end up with more broken ribs for you.”

“I’m here because Regina’s gone a bit loopy and Mary Margaret thought it would be best if I stayed with Emma for a while,” Henry inserted.

“Oh, that’s such a surprise.” Hook rolled his eyes. “Regina hasn’t changed a bit over the years. Except now that Cor—”

Emma felt the whoosh of a spell sweep over the room. She turned to look at Hook. His eyes widened.

Then she realized that Killian was handcuffed to the bed! She vaguely remembered doing that, but she couldn’t remember why—and it didn’t matter, she wasn’t going to let the love of her life be chained to the bed anymore. She found the key in her pocket, neither of them saying anything, and she unlocked the handcuffs.

Silently, Hook took them from her, brushing her hand slowly, and put them on the bedside table. Then he got down on one knee before her.

\--

“Emma? You need to go see Regina. She’s gone a bit off the deep—” He stopped in the doorway to the strangest sight he’d ever seen. Well, not really seen, as it was more of a big blonde and black blur. And honestly, it probably wasn’t the strangest sight, but it was weird.

“It’s just so sudden. I don’t know what to say,” Emma said.

“Just say yes, and make me the happiest man on earth.” Was that Hook? Kneeling before his daughter? Murmuring the words with agony in his voice?

“Oh, Killian. Of course it’s yes!” They stood in unison—the mostly black blurs moved upward in unison—and kissed. David heard Hook’s chuckle, somehow softened, and Emma’s giggle, happier than he’d ever heard it, the smacking, and Henry’s small shriek.

“David!” Emma turned in Hook’s arms and saw him. She pushed her hand out toward him, upon which sat a silver blur. “You’ll never believe what’s happened!”

Henry ran into him and hugged him tightly, hiding behind him just a little. “Grandpa! Hook proposed to Emma!”

All David could do was stare at the darkening blurriness with confusion.

\--

Somehow they all ended up back at the loft. All David remembered of the walk back to his home was Emma and Hook walking hand-in-hand in front of him, laughing and smiling and giggling and occasionally kissing. Mary Margaret met them at the door with a happy smile that he was sure quickly faded into complete confusion.

Henry was sitting on the couch staring at his mom and her—fiancé?—pirate. Hook was sitting on a chair adjacent to the couch, watching Emma’s every move in the kitchen. She stepped back towards him, a glass of David’s rum in her hand.

“Here you go,” she said, handing him the rum as she curled up in his lap. He grinned appreciatively and they kissed, Hook somehow not dropping the drink.

David picked up his phone. That was it—magic. This had to be magic. Nothing else would make Emma act this way. Surely. Mary Margaret walked over to him and wrapped her hand around his arm. He couldn’t tell if she was disturbed, enjoying the new development, or in awe over the two lovebirds.

He finally found Regina’s number. She picked up surprisingly quickly. “Regina?”

“ _Whaaaaat_?”

David sighed. Regina was still drunk. “I really hate to say this, but we need your help. I can’t see very well, and I think it’s a magic spell or something, because… something else is going wrong.”

“It’s fine, David, it’s all fine, I’ll deal with it tomorrow, or better yet, have Emma deal with it, I have a date with Jack and Jameson here and I’m really looking forward to it… so bye now!” She hung up.

“Jack and Jameson?” Mary Margaret asked in a whisper.

“Regina’s been getting drunk,” David replied. Mary Margaret nodded and they both went back to staring at their daughter and her beau.

Emma and Hook pulled away from the kiss, Hook taking a sip of the rum and placing back on the table before wrapping his arms around Emma’s waist. Emma sighed—happily? Was that a happy sigh? David was afraid that it was. “There’s so much to decide. Ceremony, guests, reception…” David wasn’t sure, but he thought that was Emma nuzzling Hook’s ear.

On second thought, he hoped the blindness would accelerate as soon as possible. So he wouldn’t have to watch this.

“Well, for one thing, I’d say we’re not having a church wedding,” Hook chuckled, leaning forward slightly to look at the map of Storybrooke Emma had found and placed on the table. “I’m fairly sure the lovely fairies wouldn’t allow me to enter the chapel.”

Emma lit up like an angel. “What if we have it on your ship? That is in Storybrooke, right? We could have the wedding on the _Jolly Roger_ , then the reception on the deck, then leave for the honeymoon right after on the ship!”

Hook stared at her like she was the aforementioned angel. David and Mary Margaret watched in half fascination and half horror as their lips crushed together, Hook clearly wholeheartedly agreeing with the plan.

David groaned and turned away, Mary Margaret turning with him. “What happened to them?” Mary Margaret asked.

“I have no idea,” David sighed. “Regina might have done some sort of magic spell. She said she tried to do magic, but it didn’t work. Who knows how this—” he waved his hand in the general direction of the lovers “—really happened.”

Hook and Emma pulled apart again, and David sighed in relief. Emma stood up from Hook’s lap—David strained to see Hook’s, well, hook, trailing along her hip as if he was reluctant to let her stand—and she stepped over to him and brandished her hand towards him.

“David, did you see my ring?”

“Thankfully, not very well.” Mary Margaret pinched his back. Probably that was rude. But he wasn’t going to back down on that. He wasn’t eager to see the pirate’s ring clearly on her finger. More than likely, it was a huge silver thing with a giant skull on the front.

Emma took her hand away and she stood in front of him, a little straighter. “I'm not crazy, and I know that you probably don't approve. But this day is about family, and I would like you to be the one to give me away.” He could hear the hope in her voice, that cautious hope born of a childhood of abandonment.

Mary Margaret gasped and he nearly teared up. He reached for Emma’s arm, something to hold onto. “Emma, that’s so—” Then he thought about it for a moment. “Oh! For God’s sake! This is nonsense. Something, probably evil magic, is making you act this way. Don't you realize what you're doing?”

Emma’s head moved and he could see a bit more blonde than before. “Living a dream.” There was a smile in her voice and David had no doubt she was looking at Hook.

“He’s going to have to take a bit of time to get used to it, love,” Hook replied, something in his tone that David could have said would be _love_ , if Hook weren’t an evil pirate from Neverland who made an alliance with the Evil Queen’s mother.

“They all will,” Emma said quietly. “But you guys weren’t quite sure about Neal at first, either.”

“You weren’t going to say that name,” Hook said, his tone switching to sharp. David only saw a black blur in Hook’s general direction, but he was fairly sure he could murder him from that far away. He tensed and Mary Margaret grabbed his shirt.

“Sorry,” Emma said, not sounding terribly repentant. She changed the subject quickly. “Why don’t we talk about where we’re going to register?”

“Where we’re going to what? Why don’t we talk about where Neal wanted to—register, or what flowers Neal would have wanted, and what portrait-painter Neal would have liked?”

“They don’t paint wedding portraits anymore, Killian. They take pictures. I’ll explain it later. But you don’t think I don’t live with the shadow of Milah over my head? That I’m not wondering if you won’t be thinking of _her_ on our wedding night?” There was at least one tear on Emma’s cheek, David knew it. That’s it, he was going to kill the pirate. And send his daughter to her room if he still had the authority to do that, because things were being said that he didn’t understand—when did they get the time to decide these boundaries?—and things were being said that he never wanted to hear.

The blonde blur moved back to the black blur, the two seemed to occupy the same space, and there were more smacking noises. Wait. They were kissing?

David stumbled and only caught himself when Mary Margaret grabbed his wrist. “David? Are you okay?” Emma asked, somehow having noticed despite sucking face with the pirate.

The world was completely black. “I don’t think so. I seem to be rather blind. Completely, actually.”

\--

Mary Margaret gasped and grabbed his biceps, holding him up before steering him to a chair that he gratefully and gracelessly fell into.

“What? How could this happen?” Emma pulled away from her pirate to stare at David, who’d fallen into the chair with no amount of style whatsoever. She stood up and waved her hand in front of his face, and he kept staring straight ahead into nothingness. Either he was an excellent actor—which she doubted—or he was genuinely blind.

“Magic, I believe,” David said morosely.

Killian stood and stared down at David. “I’m no expert in magic, but I would say someone’s wished you blind. Has anything else weird been happening?” Emma straightened and laced her fingers through Killian’s, the rings preventing her from holding his hand as tightly as she wanted. “Perhaps you should ask the Queen.”

“Nothing else weird happening?” Mary Margaret muttered.

“Nothing else, you said, milady? That’s good,” Killian said. “I think that Regina’s likely the only one with any good answers at this time of night.”

David looked up in Killian’s general direction. Mary Margaret moved his head gently so that he was actually looking at Emma's fiancé’s handsome face rather than the wall next to him. “Are you… helping me?”

“Well, it’s almost like you’re my father-in-law, isn’t it?” Killian asked bashfully.

“See? This is how it’s going to be,” Emma said happily. “I’m going to go see Regina, and Killian will watch over the place while Mary Margaret looks after you. One of you should check on Henry at some point. From now on, we’re a family.” She made a mental note to talk to Henry later.

She kissed Killian softly, then he pulled her closer. The part of her mind that wasn’t fuzzy noticed that David was quickly turning away. “Snow?” she heard him ask pitifully.

\--

Emma was musing about Regina’s whereabouts as she walked back to the loft. She honestly wasn’t sure where else the hopefully-former Evil Queen would be aside from her mansion on a cold night. Unless she’d joined Cora in some evil plan—

The wedding dresses. She’d passed them every day before now, but now they were more beautiful than anything she’d ever seen.

“Hey, Emma. What’s up?” came a voice from behind. She turned around and vaguely registered Graham standing behind her.

“Graham, look. Aren’t they beautiful?”

Emma registered slight panic in Graham’s voice when he replied. “Yeah, they’re nice. A little dressy for sheriff-ing, maybe, but—”

Emma took a step towards him. Tonight, she was friends with the world, and the world loved her in return. “Graham.”

“Emma?”

“I really like you,” Emma confessed. “I hope you know that you mean a lot to me, and if things were really, really different—”

“Different than what?” he asked cautiously. She took his hand and quickly dropped it. It wasn’t Killian’s hand, and it didn’t feel right. It felt alien.

Emma smiled. “I want you to promise me that we can still be friends, and I'd really like you to be there on the day.”

“What day?”

“The wedding!” Emma exclaimed.

Graham looked more confused. Bless his sweet British face. “What wedding?”

“My wedding,” Emma murmured. “I’m getting married. Can you believe it? Me, getting married!”

“Well—I suppose? At the same time, no may not be a strong enough word.”

“I know! It’s insane! I mean, we fought for all these weeks, and then… Sometimes you just look at someone, and you just know. You know?” Deep down Emma knows she’s a little off, happier than usual. Then she remembered Killian and his smile and she couldn’t help but smile.

“No,” Graham said, leaving no room for argument.

“I think maybe we fought because we couldn’t admit how we really felt about each other,” Emma mused. That was probably true—she remembered how they’d argued up on the beanstalk, and the connection they’d felt even then. They were afraid. But she was done being afraid.

Graham shook his head a little and the curls bounced. “Can we start again?”

“You’ll really like him. Well, nobody seems to really like him,” Emma said. She thought about it. “I don’t know if I even like him yet. But—I love him.”

“Who?”

“What?”

“What’s his name?”

“Hook,” she said ecstatically.

“That’s a name?” Graham asked.

Emma remembered the tree. “It’s his moniker, he would say.”

“Who is this guy? Does he live in Storybrooke?”

“Well, he will be soon. He’s just come over from the Enchanted Forest!”

Graham blinked. “Okay. It’s late, and I’m very tired all of a sudden. So I’m just going to go far away and be… away.”

“But—” Emma protested.

“No, I’ve got to go.”

Graham walked away, not quite tripping on his shoelaces. Emma stared after him. “You’re ruining my happy day,” she muttered. Then she glanced back at the dress. And she forgot all about Graham.

She started running back to Killian.

\--

As far as David could tell, Emma was sitting on Killian’s lap again. She was humming the wedding march. David wanted to strangle something, first Hook, and then Regina, and then Hook again. Then he wanted to throw the cake topper Emma was holding out of the window.

He tried to change the subject. Not that there was anyone talking, but everyone was thinking _wedding_ very loudly. “So the plan is to cure my complete blindness tomorrow?” Mary Margaret pulled her fingers through his hair lightly.

“Regina didn’t answer the doorbell. I assume she’s out somewhere doing something wrong. I’ll find her tomorrow,” Emma said airily. She changed the subject back to wedding. “Aren’t they a perfect little us?” Emma asked Hook.

Hook paused a moment. “I don’t like him,” he finally said. David was impressed. Were they moving past the infatuation stage so quickly? “Looks like me when I was in the navy.”

“Idea. I’ll take this hand off, and replace it with a hook.”

David could feel the heart eyes from across the room. “That’s my love.” Then there was more kissing.

“Stop that, right now. I can hear the smacking,” David demanded. He wasn’t going to ask much of Emma, he didn’t deserve anything from her, but he was going to beg for freedom from that sound until he died.

There was a moment of silence. Then Emma spoke again. “Killian, we need to talk about the invitations. Do you want to be ‘Captain Hook,’ or ‘Killian Jones’? Either one is going to look pretty odd.”

“Whereas ‘Princess Emma of Misthaven’ is going to look completely normal.”

Emma paused before attacking him for that. “What’s Misthaven?”

Mary Margaret spoke up for the first time in too long. “It’s the official name for the Enchanted Forest, Emma.”

“Oh. What’s wrong with that?” she asked Hook indignantly.

“Such a good question,” David said quietly. Mary Margaret chuckled. It was Emma’s official name and both Charming and Snow had loved the sound of it, but if it was going to make Emma get off of Hook’s lap, then it would be fantastic.

Hook chuckled. “Nothing at all, love. Only a bit ostentatious, but it’s fine. We can go with Captain Hook for me and sound completely fairy tale.”

“Killian, this town _is_ a fairy tale! We’re a pirate and a fairy tale princess, going to get married! This is our wedding, and you’re treating it like a joke.”

There was a moment of silence. Maybe they were changing their minds. Then he heard Hook’s voice again. “Oh, pouty! Look at that lip. Gonna get it—”

Emma laughed. And suddenly they were kissing again. David sighed and Mary Margaret patted him on the shoulder. This was a terrible day. “Oh, stop—” Emma tried, but she was cut off rather quickly.

“Yes, please stop,” Mary Margaret sighed. Somehow, at the rebuke of Snow White, they stopped rather quickly. They would have had another excuse in a moment anyway, for David heard the door fly open and hit the wall with a crash.

\--

Killian glanced up from his lady love at the sound of the door. David sat up, shoving Mary Margaret’s hand out of the way, and he looked blindly all around. It was, quite frankly, hilarious, but with Emma touchy at the moment, he wasn’t going to laugh.

“What’s going on?” David asked.

“Hook, he’s free!” The Dark One’s lass cried. “Ruby tracked him back here—” She screamed.

The other lady, apparently Ruby, _growled_. “What’s he doing here? Why isn’t he chained up in the hospital?”

“Belle, Ruby, calm down,” Emma said. “It’s okay. It’s all under control.”

“Belle? How do you have your memories?” Mary Margaret asked all of a sudden. Right, Killian remembered. The town line. The lass had lost her memories when he shot her over the line. He felt a sudden stab of guilt for that.

Belle grinned. “I don’t know! I woke up a few hours ago and remembered everything. I remembered the Enchanted Forest, and Storybrooke, and _Hook shooting me_.” She glared at Killian and Emma squeezed his hand.

He looked down at his shoes. “I’m truly sorry, milady, for shooting you. There was no offense meant toward your person, truly.”

“You meant to hurt Rumple, yeah?”

He just dug himself into a hole. “Yes, but—”

“What’s wrong, David?” Ruby interrupted. Apparently the she-wolf was more insightful than he initially realized.

“David’s blind,” Emma said, clearly helping him with the burying of the hole. Belle took her eyes off of him and he couldn’t help a little sigh of relief. He squeezed Emma’s hand in thanks.

Belle waved her fingers in front of David’s unseeing eyes. “Stop whatever you’re doing, please, whoever you are,” David said morosely.

“Sorry,” she muttered and backed up.

“What happened to him?” Ruby asked.

“We’re not sure, but David thinks it has to do with magic,” Emma started to explain, but she was cut off by Belle’s shriek.

“Why are you two holding hands?” she exclaimed.

There it was. He’d been waiting for this moment. Killian smiled down at Emma. “They have to hear it eventually, love.”

Emma grinned back up at him. “Killian and I are getting married!”

“How? What? How?” Ruby asked blankly.

“Three excellent questions,” murmured the long-suffering Mary Margaret. Killian had to admire his Swan’s mother. She was most certainly a forbearing soul. Then he noticed Emma was still gazing at him.

“What are you looking at?” he asked roughly.

Emma’s smile grew soft. “The man I love,” she whispered.

She pulled him down by his coat lapels and the world went slightly fuzzy, all wound up in Emma’s presence. He vaguely heard Ruby say, “Can I be blind, too?”

Gods above, he loved Emma Swan.

\--

“Hold on, wait. I know something,” David said through the smacking of Emma and Hook kissing once more. “Wait! I knew it. Regina!”

Emma managed to speak through the snogging. “What about—get off, honey—Regina?” The smacking stopped. Oh, blessed silence.

“Remember how Regina was all sad about losing Daniel again?” he asked. He felt Mary Margaret’s hand tighten on his shoulder and he patted it in consolation. “I went to see her earlier, and she said I was blind, and that Belle would get her memories back within the hour, and—”

“Let me guess, that Hook and Emma should get married,” Mary Margaret said grimly.

“She did a spell,” Emma said.

David remembered something else. “Yes, to have her will done. She said she had done such a spell but it didn’t take her pain away, so she drank the alcohol cabinet.”

“And you were affected by the spell! I probably only escaped because I’m the saviour. Some kind of natural immunity.” Hook’s leather creaked, possibly as he put his arms around Emma.

Ruby chuckled. “Yeah, you’re marrying Hook because you’re definitely soulmates.”

To David’s surprise, Mary Margaret spoke next. “Ruby,” she warned.

“That’s it,” Hook said. “You’re off the invitations list.”

“Really?” she asked. David could have sworn there was a little sadness in her tone. Then he remembered something else. This was his night for remembering things indeed.

“We have to find Regina and make her undo the spell, make things right again.”

“Before somebody really gets hurt,” Emma said.

David stood, because he was the prince of the situation, and he tripped over something and hit the ground rather loudly, because he couldn’t see anything. But that was okay. He was Prince Charming, and he was going to fix this.

\--

Regina had stepped into the living room for a moment to get away from at least three of her problems. Her kitchen smelled like alcohol and magic and she couldn’t quite remember how it had gotten that way.

Why had Daniel been forced to leave her? Right. Snow White. The perfect princess. Regina glared up at the ceiling.

There was a snap and nothingness in front of her became Cora. “Hello, Regina,” her mother said.

\--

“Why does he have to come?” Ruby asked.

“Killian is going to be my husband. I want him included,” Emma explained. “Also, he has a hook for defending people. Is it just me, or is it a bit sexy, the hook?” Oh, no. She said that out loud. She mentally shrugged. It was true. Then she realized she was holding onto the aforementioned hook like it was Killian’s other hand. She noticed Mary Margaret’s slight wince.

“’s not just you, love,” Killian said. "But honestly, it’s Regina, the perhaps formerly Evil Queen. Why do we need to help her—or find her? She’ll be just fine.” Belle snorted.

“Killian, I have to find her. It’s my job,” Emma said flippantly.

“For now,” Killian said, like an afterthought.

“What?” Emma asked indignantly. “You want me to stop being the sheriff?”

They arrived at Regina’s mansion. Ruby grabbed the doorknob and chuckled when it opened without complaint. Emma let go of Killian’s hook to step into the house first. “Let’s see, love—do I want you to stop putting all the interesting people in town in jail? Yeah, I’ve given it some thought, and it would be lovely.”

Emma glared at him, but she didn’t say anything. Honestly, he wasn’t completely wrong, she thought. The five of them wandered throughout the house, calling for Regina.

“Guys,” Ruby eventually called out.  They hurried to her side and saw a burn in the carpet.

“This is burned,” Emma said, realizing quickly that she had just stated the perfectly obvious.

“This is Cora’s style,” Mary Margaret said grimly. “She’s opened a portal here.”

Belle gasped. “You can’t make portals in Storybrooke!”

“Ooh, Emma,” Killian interrupted. He was holding one of Regina’s pantsuits. Where he found it, Emma didn’t want to know; why he was holding it, Emma didn’t want to know. “Wear this to the rehearsal dinner and the whole thing’s off.”

“Shut up, honey,” she replied. There wasn’t much else to say. Killian dropped the clothes back to the floor and wandered over to Emma’s side and wrapped his arm around her loosely.

Mary Margaret continued. “I think it’s just a transportation portal, from one place in this world to another. She just added the burn mark to make it dramatic.”

“Why would she attack Regina?” Belle asked.

Killian interjected. “I don’t think she did.”

\--

Cora stood in front of Regina in Regina’s own office. “You have so much anger right now, Regina. What’s wrong, honey?”

Regina glared at her mother. “You killed Daniel at the advice of Snow White. You’re the last person I want to see right now.” She hiccupped.

Cora shrugged and managed to smile innocently. “You’ve done so much interesting work under this spell you’ve devised.”

“What spell? I tried the _my-will-be-done_ spell but it didn’t work.”

“Oh, no, darling, it worked wonderfully.” Cora waved her hand toward Regina’s mirror and an image appeared. It flashed back and forth between Emma and Hook kissing passionately, Belle hugging Rumple happily, and David lying on his couch with wandering eyes.

Regina gasped. She thought for sure it hadn’t worked, but as she stared at the images, she remembered speaking the actions into motion.

“Are you going to leave them like this? The saviour and the pirate are sickeningly happy, and Rumple’s girlfriend has her memories once more, and dear David has become Prince Miserable. It’s quite a conundrum.”

Regina thought about it for a moment. It would be hilarious to leave them like this – except Belle. It simply wouldn’t do to have Rumple happy once more. But something inside her – some place that Henry had nurtured – remembered that she was trying to change for his sake. Belle would be sad again, but everyone else would surely thank her if she removed the spell.

“I suppose I can’t leave them like this,” Regina sighed. “Thank you, Mother, for showing me what I did. I have no idea why you decided to show me, since neither option really benefits you.”

Cora laughed, a deceptively gentle chuckle. “Watch Hook when you remove the spell. That will be all the reward I ask for.” Cora waved her hand once more, and Regina was standing behind the cursed people. Belle was chatting happily with Ruby, and Emma and Hook were kissing again. She pictured David back at home, lying blind and helpless. It was an image to remember. The blind man, not the ecstatic loving couple in front of her.

“Let the healing power begin.” The three of the not-kissing ones turned suddenly, Mary Margaret clutching her chest at the shock. “Let my will be safe again. As these words of peace are spoken, let this harmful spell be broken.”

A wave of magic pulsed over the group, and Regina felt it spreading across town.

\--

Emma was kissing Killian again, to the displeasure of her friends, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. He was just that attractive.

Then Emma felt a burst of magic in the room, and she blinked. And she pulled away from Hook.

They stared at each other for a moment, then Hook grimaced. “Ugh,” Emma muttered, wiping her mouth with her jacket sleeve. “Lips of Hook.”

She noticed that Belle had collapsed, and Mary Margaret was holding her up. Regina sighed loudly from the periphery of the group. “Hi, guys,” she sighed.

\--

With the exception of Belle, who was back in the hospital to be checked once more for memory loss, the group was back in David and Mary Margaret’s loft. Henry glanced around the room, noting the differences from just a few hours ago.

David was staring at Mary Margaret with glee, and Emma was glaring at Hook with no small amount of malice.

David was sitting on the couch with Mary Margaret cuddled in his lap, and Emma was sitting next to him with the hook resting on her thigh. Hook was tied to a chair.

Regina was sitting awkwardly in the chair next to Henry’s, holding his hand. They’d already gone over what had happened, and Regina had grudgingly apologized. That was enough for Henry, because the things he’d seen today – he didn’t want to see them again in a long while.

And he couldn’t help being overjoyed that Regina had seen Cora, had been exposed to evil again, and had still chosen to do the right thing. Finally, his mom was changing. He grinned and let his feet swing for a moment.

Then he noticed Regina staring at Hook. He didn’t have to ask why she was staring at the pirate, because he immediately saw what he was staring at.

Hook was gazing at Emma with longing in his eyes. Emma was then glaring down at the hook in her lap, but her cheeks were flushed, like she was aware of Hook’s gaze and wasn’t upset about it.

Henry smiled. Maybe one good thing would eventually come out of the strangeness of the evening.


End file.
